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932 46774 FOREIGN RELATIONS. ^ 

[In closure 2 in No. 121. — Translation.! 

To David B. Sickels, 

United States Consul : 

Your letter of congratulations, and also inclosing the congratulations of the Ameri- 
can citizens residing in Siam, we have received with pleasure. The answer to the con- 
gratulations of the American citizens we inclose in this cover also. 

We now beg to answer you personally. In your letter yon show your good will to 
us personally, and also invoke a blessing for our future prosperity. We tbank you 
very much, and hope that you will remain in Bangkok many more years, far beyond 
the time yon yourself have set to leave. We invoke a blessing for your future pros- 
perity in all things. 

SI AMAIN. 



flnclosure 3 in'No. 121. — Translation.] 

To the American citizens who reside in Siam : 

You have been the source of joy to us on account of your words of encouragement in 
regard to the prosperity of Siam, and that you believe that we will administer the 
affairs of the nation so as to insure its prosperity. Your congratulations give me great 
pleasure. We beg to inform you that ever since we attained to the kingdom we have 
had the best interests of Siam constantly in mind, which is a country built up by 
the strength of our ancestors. We have also had it as our constant care to preserve 
those treaty relations with foreign powers which our father in his wisdom entered 
into. We hope to have the treaty relations constantly prosper. 

In regard to those things which you advise me are evils to the people, we beg to in- 
form you that we have seen those evils and think continually that we may be able to 
change them. It is a work which must be done, but cannot yet be done, and must be 
postponed, but, though postponed, we are thinking constantly that these evils are a 
matter which we shall regulate in future. 

We tjiank you all that you have thought of the affairs of onr country, and have 
thought of onrself, also invoking a blessing upon us. We pray that the thing which 
is great in the universe will grant you all to live in our country in peace and pros- 
perity. 

Throne Barone, Aracha satis Moholan, Sunday, 6 of waxing moon, 11th month, year 
of Rallit, 1st of the decade, 1241 of civil era, corresponding to September 21, 1879, of 
Christian era. 

SIAMIN. 



SPAIN. • 
No. 440. 
Mr. Evarts to Mr. Loicell. 



No. 98.] Department of State, 

Washington, September 24, 1878. 

Sir : On receipt of your dispatch No. 110, of the 30th ultimo, in rela- 
tion to the return to Madrid of certain packages of u La Ilustracion 
Espanola? and " La Moda Elegante? which has been sent by mail to the 
United States, on account of non-payment of the duties thereon, inquiry 
on the subject was made of the •Postmaster- General. 

His reply, dated 20th instant, states that the packages, being regarded 
as dutiable, were returned in conformity with the construction given to 
the postal-union treaty by the international bureau at Berne, to the 
effect that duties may not be collected upon dutiable matter sent by 
mail within the limits of the union. 

A copy of the letter of the Post-Office Department, with its accompa- 
nying circular, explanatory of the rules adopted in the matter, is here- 
with transmitted for your information. 
I am, &c, 

WM. M. EVAETS. 




Spain. 933 

[Tncloaure in So. 98. | 

No. 47322.] Post-Office Department, 

Washington, D. C, September 20, 1879. 

Sir : I have tlie honor to acknowledge the receipt of yonr letter of the 18th instant, 
inclosing a copy of a dispatch, dated the 30th ultimo, from the minister of the United 
States in Spain relative to the return to that country of certain packages containing 
dutiable matter sent by mail to the United estates, and to inform you, in reply, that 
as the general postal-union treaty, under the provisions of which all postal exchanges 
between this country and Spain are conducted, stipulates that any article whatever 
liable to custom duties shall not be admitted for conveyance by the post, such articles 
received by mail from postal-union countries as are pronounced, by the customs officers 
to be subject to duty in the United States, are returned as undeliverable matter to the 
country of origin. 

This practice is based upon a construction by the international bureau at Berne that 
the provisions of the treaty do not authorize the collection of customs duties on articles 
sent by mail within the limits of the postal union, and that the postal administrations 
which cannot deliver such articles sent to them from postal-union countries, are re- 
quired to return them immediately, through the respective offices of exchange. 

Under our customs-revenue laws the only books which are absolutely free of duty 
, are those which have been printed and manufactured more than twenty years, and 
pamphlets, periodicals, and other like publications for the personal use of the psjk to 
whom they are addressed; and the regulations of the Treasury Department provrcrOTpr 
the free admission through the mails, in the discretion of the collector of customs, of 
books valued at less than one dollar, and of photographs, in limited numbers, of pri- 
vate individuals for their own use or for distribution to relatives or personal friends. 

The illustrated periodicals referred to by Mr. Lowell in his dispatch were, no doubt, 
pronounced by the customs officers detailed to inspect the foreign mails received at 
New York to be subject to duty, and were for that reason returned to the country of 
origin. 

The order of the Treasury Department directing the admission through the mails 
free of duty of packages of periodicals not exceeding the weight of 1,000 grams (2 
pounds 3 ounces), whi ch Mr. Lowell mentions as having read in an American news- 
paper, was issued by the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of June 18, 1878, in 
consequence of complaints made to this department, that customs officers at New York 
were returning to countries of origin, as subject to duty, all newspapers and periodi- 
cals received in the mails from abroad; and the subsequent instruction from the Treas- 
ury Department, published in a circular issued from this department on the 5th in- 
stant, a copy of which is herewith inclosed, resulted from further efforts by this de- 
partment to obtain from the Treasury some fixed rule defining clearly the limits within 
which the discretionary power of customs officers would be exercised in remitting 
duties on articles valued at not more than one dollar. It was deemed important for 
the information of the public that the Treasury regulations should specify what books, 
periodicals, &c, not exceeding the value of one dollar, would be permitted to pass in 
the mails free of duty, but as all books, periodicals, &c, printed and manufactured 
less than twenty years are by our revenue laws subject to duty, the Secretary of the 
Treasury did not feel warranted in issuing any more definite regulations on the sub- 
ject than those contained in his letters published in the inclosed circular, which 
authorizes the delivery through the mails free of duty, of unsealed packages of news- 
papers and periodicals not exceeding in weight 1,000 grams, when intended mainly for 
the personal use of the party to whom they are addressed, and when not sent as 
merchandise for trade and profit, and which also states that it may be presumed that 
the discretion ary power of customs officers, to remit duties on books not, exceeding one 
dollar in value, will not be exercised in regard to books except in the case of single 
copies of booms transmitted through the mail for the use of private persons, sent in 
good faith for that purpose. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

JAS. N. TYNER, 
Acting Postmaster-General. 

[Inclosure in Mr. Tyner's letter.] 

| Official.] 

P< )st-Office Department. 
Officb of Foreign Mails, 

Washington, !>.('., September 5, 1878. 
In order that postmasters and the public may be fully informed relative to (lie regu- 
lations and instructions issued by the Treasury Department for the treat men) by col- 
lectors of customs of dutiable books, newspapers, &c, imported in the mails from 



934 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

foreign countries, copies of the following documents are, by direction of the Postmas- 
ter-General, annexed hereto, viz:. 

1. Treasury circular No. 61, relative to newspapers imported through the mails. 

2. Letter from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury to the Postmaster General, dated 
August 28, 1878, inclosing copy of letter addressed to the collector of customs at New 
York, under date of August 24, 1878, prescribing limitations under which importations 
of dutiable books and newspapers may be made through the mails. 

3. Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to the Postmaster-General, dated Sep- 
tember 2, 1878, in explanation of the Treasury rules which permit custom officers to 
exercise a discretion as to admitting free of duty any articles of merchandise which 
have not a dutiable value of over one dollar. 

It should also be stated that, as any article whatever subject to customs duties is by 
the provisions of the general postal union treaty declared to be unmailable, any un- 
sealed packet received from countries of the postal union, which is pronounced by 
officers of the customs to be subject to customs duties, is returned immediately to the 
country of origin through the post-offices of exchange. 

JOSEPH H. BLACKFAN, 

Superintendent. 



CIRCULAR. 

[1878. — Department No. 61. Secretary's Office.] 

newspapers imported through the mails. 

Treasury Department, 
Washington, D. C, June 18, 1878. 
7 > Collectors of Customs and others : 

In view of the difficulty of collecting the small amount of duties accruing on news- 
papers forwarded in packages to the United States by post from foreign countries, 
and of the delay attending their delivery by the customs authorities, it is directed 
that unsealed packages of newspapers from foreign countries, not exceeding in weight 
one thousand (1,0U0) grams (2 pounds 3 ounces), may be delivered to the persons to 
whom they are addressed, at the post-offices, without detention by the officers of the 
customs, provided the postal authorities at the United States exchange-offices where 
such packages are received from abroad, declare that the papers consist of newspapers 
or of periodicals entitled to pass in the mails as newspapers. 

JOHN SHERMAN, 

Sewetary. 

Treasury Department, 

August 28, 1878. 
Sir: Referring to the letters of this department, addressed to you under dates of 
October 15, 1877, and January 10, 1878, in regard to the importation of newspapers 
and books through the mails, I have the honor to inclose for your information a copy 
of a letter addressed by this department to the collector of customs at New York, 
under date of the 24th instant, prescribing limitation under which such importations 
may be made in the manner mentioned. 
Very respectfully, 

JOHN B. HAWLEY, 

Acting Secretary. 
Hon. David M. Key, 

Postmaster. General. 

[Copy of letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to the collector of customs at New York, inclosed 

"with above letter. 1 

Treasury Department, 
.Office of the Secretary, 

Washington, D. C, August 24, 1878. 
Collector of Customs, JSFeiv Yorlc : 

Sir : Your letter of the 25th of June last was duly received, in which you refer to 
circular of this department No. 61, of June 18, 1878, relative to the transmission through 
the mails free of duty, from foreign countries, of packages of newspapers and periodi- 
cals not exceeding the maximum weight of two pounds and three ounces. 

You state that no limitation is made by such circular to the number of packages of 
newspapers which may be delivered; nor is there any discrimination made between 
papers received as merchandise by dealers, and those for personal use or by subscribers. 



Spain. 935 

In reply thereto J- have to state that snch circular was intended to relieve from the 
exaction of customs duties newspapers and periodicals intended mainly for the personal 
use of the party to whom they were addressed. Such circular was not intended, and 
should not be construed, to confer any privileges whatever upon dealers in newspapers 
and periodicals, or other parties importing such newspapers or periodicals as merchan- 
dise for trade or profit. 

It is therefore directed that where quantities of newspapers and periodicals imported 
through the mails are directed to any person presumably a dealer in such articles, such 
articles shall be considered as not within the scope of circular No. 61, but should be 
returned to the foreign country from which they came, as non-mailable matter. 

I have further to state that complaints have been made to this department that 
books in large quantities, addressed to dealers, have been imported through the mails, 
free of duty, under the supposed authority of this department. In a letter addressed 
by this department to the Postmaster-General under date of October 15, 1877, it was 
stated that books imported through the mails, not exceeding one dollar in value, might 
be regarded as exempt from duty. This limitation, however, is one to be exercised 
within the discretion of the collector of customs, and the Postmaster-General was so 
informed, under date the 10th of January, 1878. (See circular of June 6, 1878.) 

You will hereafter decliue to permit delivery of books imported through the mails 
which, from the quantity or other circumstances, are presumably intended for the 
use of any other person than to whom they are addressed, or as merchandise ; and in 
no instance will the use of the mails be permitted to enable parties to import arti- 
cles of merchandise which should be properly treated as subject to duty under the 
customs-revenue laws ; and books in the latter case, as in the case of newspapers and 
periodicals, should be returned to the foreign country from which they came, as non- 
mailable matter. 

Very respectfully, 

JOHN B. HAWLEY, Acting Secretary 

\ 
Treasury Department, . 

September 2, 1878. _ 
Sir : Referring to the letter of this department, addressed to you under date of the 
28th ultimo, transmitting for your infoimation a copy of a letter addressed to the col- 
lector of customs at New York, on the 24th ultimo, relative to the importation of 
books through the mails, I have the honor to inform you that, as a rule, it may be 
stated that no books are exempt from customs duties because of their importation 
through the mail, and that this mode of transmission confers no rights uj>on books 
other than those which attach when imported in the ordinary manner. 

The general rules of this department permit customs officers to exercise a discretion 
as to admitting free any articles of merchandise which have not a dutiable value of 
over one dollar, and this applies to books as well as to other articles, whether coming 
through the mails or otherwise. 

It may be presumed, however, that such discretion will not be exercised in regard 
to books except in the case of single copies of books transmitted through the mail 
for the use of private persons, sent in good faith for that purpose. 
Very respectfully, 

JOHN SHERMAN, Secretary. 
Hon. David M. Key, 

Postmaster- General. 



No. 441. 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Mvarts. 

No. 121.] Legation of the United States, 

Madrid, October 29, 1878. 

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that General Grant arrived here 
on the morning of the 18th. 

At the station he was received by the civil governor of the province, 
by a general and two aids-de-camp, on the part of the minister of war, 
and by the members of this legation. At all the stations on the road 
he was greeted by the local authorities. 

Though he arrived in Madrid on the day he originally fixed, he had 
entered Spain three days earlier than he had intended, in compliance 



936 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

[with an invitation of the King (received through the Spanish consul at 
Bordeaux) to be present at the autumn maneuvers near Vitoria. 
General Grant while there, was presented to the King, dined with him, 
and rode by his side during one of the reviews. He spoke in very warm 
terms of the excellent quality, appearance, and discipline of the Span- 
ish troops. 
During his stay here he visited the various museums, the Escorial, and 
Toledo. To the last place I was unable to accompany him on account 
of an engagement to dine with the minister of foreign affairs. 

On Saturday he and Mrs. Grant were received in private audience by 
the Princess of Asturias. On Monday evening they dined at my house, 
meeting the president of the council, the ministers of foreign affairs 
and of war, the civil and military governors, and the principal foreign 
ministers. After the dinner a reception took place, where as many per- 
sons as my house would accommodate, were presented to General and 
Mrs. Grant. 

The next day Mr. Canovas del Castello gave a great dinner in honor 
of General Grant at the palace of the presidency, after which the chief 
guests withdrew to the opera, where the ministerial box had been put at 
their disposal, and whither Mrs. Grant had gone earlier in the evening. 

General Grant left Madrid on Friday, the 25th, at 9 o'clock p. m., for 
Lisbon, the Portuguese minister here having already telegraphed his 
coming in order that he should be properly received. In consequence of 
this latter circumstance it was impossible for him to delay his departure 
in order to take formal leave of the King, as he otherwise would gladly 
have done. I made the proper explanations and apologies to His Ma- 
jesty at our reception next day. 

Every possible attention and courtesy were shown to General Grant 
during his stay by the Spanish Government, and the minister for for- 
eign affairs took occasion to tell me that these civilities were intended 
not only to show respect and good will to General Grant, but to the 
Government and people of the United States. 

General Grant several times expressed to me very warmly his pleas- 
ure and satisfaction at the manner in which he had been received and 
treated. Both he and Mrs. Grant spoke repeatedly of the great enjoy- 
ment they had had in their visit. 

From Portugal General Grant goes to Cadiz, and thence to Malaga. 
From Malaga he will visit Granada, Cordova, and Seville, going thence 
to Gibraltar. 

Mr. Silvela begged me to keep him informed of the General's move- 
ments in Spain, in order that the necessary orders might be given for 
his fitting reception everywhere by the public authorities. 
I have, &c, 

LOWELL. 



No. 442. 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts. 

No. 148.] United States Legation, 

Madrid, February 11, 1879. (Beceived March 1.) 
Sir : I have the honor to report that on the afternoon of Christmas 
day, 1878, General F. A. Starring called upon me with the necessary 
papers for the extradition of ope Angell, arrested in Lisbon on a charge 



spain. 937 

of embezzlement in the United States, and requested me to ask of the 
Spanish Government to allow his transport across Spanish territory 
should it prove necessary. 

I informed General Starring that nothing could be done on that day, 
but that I would call upon the secretary of state for foreign affairs on 
the morrow, and state the case to him. 

This I accordingly did, and that gentleman at once granted my re- 
quest in the most courteous manner, and caused the necessary orders to 
be issued, on the understanding that I should make my wishes known to 
him in writing at my convenience. I did so on the same afternoon, re- 
ceiving his answer the next day, and acknowledging it with a note of 
thanks. A copy of my note, and a copy and translation of his reply, with 
a copy of my acknowledgment, are appended. 



I have, &c, 



J. E. LOWELL. 



[Inclosure 1 in No. 148,] 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Silvela. 

Madrid, December 26, 1878. 

Excellency: A certain Angell, guilty of embezzlement, and under indictment in 
the United States for that offence, has been arrested in Lisbon. The Government of 
Portugal (although no treaty of extradition has been concluded between that country 
and the United States) has consented to the arrest and and delivery of the criminal. 

The Secretary of State has deputed General F. A. Starring, because, having known 
the prisoner, he will be satisfactorily able to identify him, to take charge of and con- 
vey him to the United States for trial. 

As it may be necessary to convey the said prisoner through the territory of His Cath- 
olic Majesty, I venture to ask your excellency, as a matter of international comity, that 
you would grant permission for that purpose, should there be occasion for it, and would 
issue the necessary orders for the purpose. 

I beg to assnreyour excellency that I have seen the papers in the case, and that 
everything has been done in conformity with the treaty of extradition now in force be- 
tween the United States and Spain. 

I gladly avail myself of this occasion to offer to your excellency a renewed assur- 
ance of my most distinguished consideration. 

J. E. LOWELL. 



[Inclosure 2 in No. 148. 1 
Mr. Silvela to Mr. Lowell. 

Palace, December 26, 1H78. 

Excellency: I have received your excellency's note of yesterday's date, in which 
you solicit in the name of your government permission granted to transport through 
Spanish territory a person named Angell accused of embezzlement, and who is to be 
sent from Lisbon to the United States in the custody of General F. A. Starring. Having 
read it and considering that, as your excellency affirms, iu this case all the prescrip- 
tions required by the convention in force between Spain and the United States to reg- 
ularize a demand for extradition have been complied with, the Spauish Government 
has the greatest pleasure in acceding to this request, and the necessary orders will be 
issued by the minister of gobernacion that a force of the civil guard be on the frontier 
to take charge of the prisoner, and render aid to the general in charge of him. 

In having the honor to communicate this to your excellency, I cannot do less thau 
indicate the propriety of your notifying me the port of the peninsula to which he is to 
be shipped for his destination in order that proper orders be given to the authorities 
at the point of transit. 

I avail myself of this occasion to renew to your excellency the assurance of my most 
distinguished consideration. 

MANUEL SILVELA. 



938 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

[Inclosure 3 in No. 148.] 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Silvela. 

Madrid, December 27, 1878. 
Excellency- I have the honor to acknowledge the reception of your excellency's 
note of yesterday authorizing (should it be necessary) the passage over Spanish soil of 
a criminal now under arrest at Lisbon. 

I beg to as-ure your excellency that this prompt act of international comity cannot 
fail to be warmly reciprocated by the government I have the honor to represent. 

I directed the officer who is to take charge of the criminal to notify me by telegram 
of the route he intended to follow, and shall hasten to inform your excellency thereof, 
in compliance with your request. 
I gladly avail myself, &c, 

J. R. LOWELL. 



No. 443. 

Mr. Loivell to Mr. Evarts. 

No. 149.] Legation of the United States, 

Madrid, February 14, 1879. (Received March 5,) 

Sir: The successful importation of a cargo of American wheat at 
Barcelona, to which our consul at that port, Mr. Scheuch, has called 
your attention, has given rise to prolonged discussion in the Spanish 
press. This discussion has naturally turned upon the old question of 
free trade and protection ; but has incidently raised others of some im- 
portance to the United States. 

The general question is complicated here as with us by conflicting in- 
terests, and here as with us the different interests that desire protection, 
however hostile to each other on certain points, combine in the Cortes 
in favor of high duties. Jn the present case the Oatalonians, though in 
favor of protective duties for their own manufactures, are in favor also 
of cheap flour for their operatives, and though the duties, amounting to 
five pesetas and eighty -two centimos (p. 5.82), have not prevented the con- 
signees (it is said) from selling their wheat at a profit, they are yet 
enough to enable speculators in Spanish wheat to put a higher price 
upon it. 

The newspapers comment on the absurdity of protecting a product 
which, without protection, could not compete with one of equal or better 
quality brought from a great distance, and still more on the folly of im- 
posing heavy duties upon American wheat in the Antilles, in order to 
encourage a crop less profitable than that of the vine, and less adapted 
io the soil. 

These considerations have led to the renewed expression, in various 
quarters, of the desire that a commercial treaty should be concluded be- 
tween Spain and the United States by a modification of their respective 
tariffs to the advantage of both. 

The excellent quality of the American wheat is admitted on all hands, 
and also that it produces a flour of which bread can be made of the par- 
ticular consistency and flavor agreeable to Spanish palates. 

That this branch of trade might become important may be inferred 
from the fact that the foreign importation of wheat from all quarters 
during 1878 is said to have amounted to three and a half million dollars, 
and this mainly since the month of September last. 
I have, &c, 

J. E. LOWELL. 



j spain. 939 

No. 444. 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts. 

Ko. 151.] Legation of the United States, 

Madrid, February 20, 1879. (Eeceived March 10.) 

Sir: Just after I had dispatched my No. 150, a leading article ap- 
peared in the Epoca, a conservative journal, which supports the admin- 
istration, bearing more directly than any other I have seen upon the 
question of a commercial treaty between Spain and the United States. 
I have accordingly Englished it, and the original together with the 
translation are appended. 

Ton will observe wh:it is said about the American republics formerly 
dependencies of Spain. There is now in Madrid a minister of Colombia 
(accredited to Belgium), who will remain, he tells me, several months. 
The natural source for the supply of manufactured goods to those re- 
gions would seem to be in the United States. In case the lines of steam- 
ers between this country and South America were established, though 
they might carry some Spanish manufactures, yet I suspect that they 
would be in much greater proportion the mere distributors of English 
wares. 

What is said also in the article from the Epoca about agricultural 
machinery is deserving of attention, the surface of the country in many 
parts of Spain being as well adapted to their use as our own prairies. 
I have, &c, J. E. LOWELL. 



flnclosure in No. 151 — Translation.] 

Spain and the United States in a commercial point of view. 

[From La Epoca, February 17, 1879.] 

We have published the commercial statistics corresponding to the year 1874, that is 
to say, the movement of imports and exports between Spain and the United States of 
America. It results from these statistics, as the readers of the Epoca have seen, that 
the total value of exports amounted to 20,366,420 pesetas, and that of imports to 
39,896,360 pesatas, a difference in favor of the latter of 49,529,940 pesetas. 

To the United States we export raisins, grapes, lemons, almonds, galls, common and 
nigh wines, oils, cork, common salt, and other articles, and from the American Repub- 
Lic we import raw cotton, petroleum, staves, tobacco, grain, lard, butter, salted meats, 
leather, hides, &c. 

It is plain that a great disproportion exists between the value of products imported 
nid exported. And this disproportion has its origin not in the Spanish tariff, but in 
;hat of the United States ; which is a revenue tariff to excess, which imposes in- 
creased duties on fruits and other articles, lessening the demands, as the Eco de las 
\.iluanas says, which there would be for our products if the American tariff were dif" 
! erent. 

What is the conduct of Spain toward the United States? With the exception of 
>etroleum, which now pays iucreased duties, but of an extraordinary and transitory 
haracter, the other articles either pay no duty, like tobacco, which is imported in 
ucn great quantities from Virginia and Kentucky, or pay weighing dues, like raw 
:otton, or a low revenue duty like staves. 

Oue of onr esteemed colleagues says that the commercial policy of Spain towards the 
Jnited States is more acceptable than that which the American Republic concedes to 
is. It depends upon her whether a treaty of commerce may be made, without pre- 
'enting onr considering with the greatest interest whatever relates to onr colonies, 
ust at this moment the ministry of Hacienda is studying what modifications may be 
lessible in our existing laws to facilitate the development of our commerce with Cuba, 
,:> orto Rico, and the Philippines. 

The Eco de las Aduanas believes that the concrete question of the trade between 
'pain and the United States, may be settled independently of the other by meaus 
f a commercial treaty, by which the treatment of the most favored nation should be 



940 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

granted, and the extraordinary duties on petroleum renounced, obtaining in exchange 
considerable reductions in the duties on fruits, wines, oils, and other articles which we 
export to North America. 

This is a controverted question. Let us see what an enlightened writer says. Ac- 
cording to him, should we conclude the treaty, the following articles should be excluded 
from it, or charged with protective duties: sugar, rice, flour, salt pork, lard, butter, 
refined petroleum, and lead. As for raw petroleum it should be included in the bene- 
fits of the treaty, because it lends itself to a new industry— refining— which may estab- 
lish itself in Spain. 

What would Spain lose by concluding a commercial treaty with the United States 
for two, three, or, at most, five years, by way of experiment ? 

We believe that she would lose nothing, aud that, on the contrary, she would open 
a sure and very important market for all natural productions of which she has a super- 
abundance, at the same time cheapening to her manufacturers the acquisition of prod- 
ucts, without which the complete development of her manufactures of cotton and 
woolen cloths, tanned leather, dyes, casks, flour, and refined petroleum cannot take 
place. Neither would the United States be prejudiced by admitting the products of 
Spain at low duties. 

Bnt if a treaty is to be concluded, if its essential bases are to be agreed on, we must 
wholly free ourselves from the spirit of provincialism. The Catalans desire, and so 
does Spain, that their many and prosperous manufactures should be protected ; the 
Castilians their wheat and flouring mills ; Audalusians their wines, raisins, almonds, 
and oil. All those industries are Spanish, and all those products national, and accord- 
ingly we should not talk of this or that province, and of this or that district, but of 
the country. 

If hitherto it has been difficult to compete, for example, with the grains of the United 
States in the principal European points of consumption, such as Liverpool, London, 
Antwerp, Bordeaux, aud Marseilles; and if ships are constantly arriving at our Med- 
iterranean ports, tlie facilities of transport increased and freights diminished, what 
will happen? Capital must converge toward the country and be directed to agricul- 
ture. If the national wealth is invested in stocks and withdrawn from agriculture, 
canals, forests, and machinery will be wanting in the Castilian provinces. 

Usury is the most terrible enemy of the husbandman, and unfortunately it is a plant 
which just now grows and is spreading in Spain. Our farmers being reduced to mere 
sowers and reapers, machinery which might simplify operations and save mauual labor 
is not introduced. We all know that by taking certain measures recommended by ex- 
perience, much would be gained ; but we know also that to carry them out a considera- 
ble previous outlay is necessary, which cannot be made, because the usurious interest 
of the money he absolutely needs compels the farmer to sell his crops before the har- 
vest has supplied him. And this circumstance forcing him to sell unseasonably, that 
is to say, to pay in kind at a low price, without being able to profit by favorable cir- 
cumstances, he often finds himself not only in no position to spend money in ma- 
chinery, but commonly unable to devote himself adequately to the most necessary 
manual labor, since through want of resources he finds himself obliged to practice 
economy, an unwise economy it is true, but absolutely indispensable because nemo dat 
quod non habet. 

Little cau be hoped here from private enterprise ; there are rooted vices in our habits, 
which not even experience itself demonstrating their harmf ulness will ever be able to 
extirpate. 

But aside from the above considerations, and returning to the main topic, we are 
bound to take up and present the opinion maintained by an enlighteued review. Ac- 
cording to that publication it is necessary, in order that Spanish products may com- 
pete with foreign, " First, to lessen the intrinsic cost of our goods, which necessarily 
implies a great development of manufacture, as we have already said at the beginning 
of this article ; second, to make, transport cheaper and more speedy, which requires 
considerable reforms in our ship-building industry; third, to unify our customs legis- 
lation till we reach a point where trade may be carried on between Spain and the 
colonies on the same footing, so far as duties are concerned, as between the provinces 
of the Peninsula; and, fourth, to conclude commercial conventions with the American 
republics, which may stimulate the development of our mercantile relations." That 
is to say, that the preponderance of a nation springs from the development of its foreign 
commerce, and the encouragement of its shipping interest, which carries the national 
flag to all regions of the known world. 

Spain has the aptitude and the conditions for considerably extending her commerce ; 
first to her colonies, then to the Spanish-American republics, and afterwards to neigh- 
boring countries. To attain this end we need administrative reforms, which may be 
adopted with greater or less speed; greater and more profound industrial knowledge, 
easily acquired by the efforts of all; aud commercial conditions easy to be reached; 
and above all we need a most lively desire that our country may grow great, rich, and 
respected. 



SPAIN. 941 

For example, the newspapers of Colombia desire and ask for the establishment of 
direct communication between Spain and the ports of that country. 

Is not this a just desire and a legitimate aspiration ? But the establishment of that 
line of steamers would develop the marine, and give new life to commercial transac- 
tions. Would not constant and favorable relations with South America bring with 
them an indirect protection to the flour of Castile, to the wines of Aragon. Andalusia, 
La Mancha, and Catalonia, to the fruit of the Mediterranean ? Undoubtedly. A line 
of frequent and regular steamers between Spanish ports and the United States — 
would it not be opportune ? Who doubts it? In the American Republic they want 
our wines, our corks, our dried fruits, our esparto-grass, as well as other products, like 
the Valencian pottery, which is beginning to be introduced. In Spain we need ma- 
chinery, petroleum, cereals (when the crop of Castile fails or is short), cotton, and 
other products of the United States, which we generally buy at second-hand. 

Commerce nowadays is the true diplomacy. Mercantile conventions are the treaties 
of alliance. But space fails us and we must suspend this important task till another day. 



No. 445. 

Mr. Evarts to Mr. Lowell. 

No. 135.] Department of State, 

Washington, March 5, 3879. 

Sir : With reference to your dispatch No. 148, of the 11th ultimo, re- 
porting the request made by you of the Spanish Government, at the 
instance of General Starring - , for permission to have Charles W. Angell 
transported in custody across the territory of Spain, and the compliance 
of the Spanish Government therewith, I have to instruct you to convey 
to the Spanish minister for foreign affairs the sincere satisfaction with 
which this government has learned of that act of courtesy. 

The question of the right of transit of an extradited criminal in cus- 
tody across the territory of a foreign state, is now attracting to some 
extent the notice of this Department. It is presumed that, where the 
offender is regularly extradited in pursuance of a treaty, and the de- 
manding state has a treaty of extradition with the state across whose 
territory transit is sought, it will be sufficient that the crime for which 
extradition is granted shall also be among those in the treaty with the 
country of transit, and that the warrant of surrender be exhibited. 

If the procedure in this respect should be different in Spaiu, I will 
thank you to advise me. 

I notice that in your note of December 26 to Mr. Silvela, you say that 
"the Secretary of State has deputed General F. A. Starring," &c. In 
point of fact, General Starring Was deputed by the governor of the State 
of Illinois as his agent to bring home the prisoner, and in my instruction 
to Mr. Mo ran I merely accredited that appointment. 
I am, &c, 

WM. M. EVABTS. 



No. 446. 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts. 

No. 188.] Legation of the United States, 

Madrid, June 2, 1879. (Eeceived June 18.) 

Sir : I have the honor to report that the new Cortes were opeued yes- 
terday by the King in person with the usual pomp. 

As it is an open secret that there are wide differences of opinion in 



v_ 



942 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

the Liberal-Conservative party, which the present ministry are supposed 
to represent, as to certain questions of policy, especially as to the extent 
and nature of the reforms to be carried out in Cuba, it is not to be won- 
dered at that the royal speech should deal mainly with generalities, 
which, if they do not satisfy, will at least not irritate any fraction of the 
dominant party. 

After a very becoming allusion to the death of Queen Mercedes, the 
speech claims credit for the efforts made " to obtain complete liberty 
and sincerity in the expression of the public will." 

# # # # * # # 

Then follow congratulations on the complete restoration of order in 
the whole peninsula, an expression of particular satisfaction at the estab- 
lishment of a Chinese legation in Madrid, and an allusion to the meeting 
at Elvas between the Kings of Spain and Portugal. 

The next paragraph is of more importance : 

With the intention to make the administration of justice more expeditious, my gov- 
ernment will present to you various projects of reform in the penal code, in the law 
of civil process, in the organization of courts, and in judicial procedure, in order to 
reduce prosecutions for all kinds of crime to an oral and public trial. 

The last-mentioned reform, if carried out, will have excellent effects, 
both in expediting justice, and making it more respected. 

There are brief allusions to the army and navy and education. 

The ministry of hacienda is felicitated on the success of the recent 
loan raised by public subscription — 

In which all classes of society have concurred, which has covered the deficits of the 
treasury, limiting the floating debt to the proportions which the annual estimates 
exact, and, the interest of money being thus reduced, .capital will come to the aid of 
agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, contributing to the increase of wealth and 
to the solidity and improvement of credit. 

The government is also occupied in rectifying the bases of taxation, in reducing 
arrears to order, and in collecting the necessary data and elements to propose to you 
the means of remedying or lessening the effects produced on our national industries 
by the economic crisis through which the world is passing. 

The estimates will be at once presented to you without new burdens; and to facili- 
tate their discussion, my government will propose to you separately the measures and 
regulations necessary to improve the revenue and the public economy. 

Then folloAV a few words concerning reforms to be proposed in public 
charities, and in provincial, and municipal administrations. 
The passage relating to Cuba is as follows : 

It is not possible that the traces of ten years of desolation and mourning which our 
colonies have undergone should be speedily obliterated, but my government will take 
care to present to you such measures as may tend to remedy past evils, and to draw 
constantly closer the bond of interest and affection now more than ever indissoluble, 
sealed as it is with the spirit of concord. Important have been the decisions adopted 
during the parliamentary recess to arrive with a firm step at the measure of possible 
assimilation between the administration of those provinces and that of the mother 
country, thus fulfilling the noble aspirations of centuries. Accounts will be rendered 
to you of all these measures, and the representatives of the Antillas being fortunately 
gathered in this chamber with those of the Peninsula, I am confident that with 
your patriotic help all these designs will be carried out and perfected. Among these 
new projects, the first place will be given to those intended to solve the social question 
of the island of Cuba, hastening the day of the complete extinction of slavery in ac- 
cordance with principles already established, and to those which aim at reforming 
taxes, duties, and expenses of administration, all with the leading intention of recon- 
ciling interests and uniting desires, that being my earnest aspiration, and the end pro- 
posed by my government. 

The result of this sound policy is already felt, for in spite of the many obstacles of- 
fered by industrial crises, and even by the rigors of nature, the receipts of the treas- 
ury in Cuba and Porto Rico are increasing, the administration is organizing, and the 
ivope is reuewed of discharging without unreasonable postponement sacred obligations 
:ecessarily negle '"ed during the period through which we are still passing. 



spain. 943 

The speech was received in silence with the exception of the pas- 
sage referring to the death of the Queen. This, however, was to be ex- 
pected in listening to a document intentionally colorless. 

The fate of the ministry will be decided in the discussions which are 
to follow, and is more likely to turn upon some subsidiary, and compara- 
tively unimportant point, than upon any question of general policy. 
* # # ■ # # # # 

♦ A copy of the King's speech in full is hereto annexed. 
I have, &c, 

♦ J. R. LOWELL. 



No. 447. 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts. 

No. 192.] Legation of the United States, 

Madrid, August 19, 1879. (Received September 10.) 

Sir: I have the honor to iuclose a copy and translation of so much, 
(about half) of a dispatch of General Martinez Campos, to the prime 
minister, as relates to the civil and diplomatic part of the pacification of 
Cuba which he accomplished. It was presented to the Cortes during 
their recent short session, mainly devoted to a discussion of the speech 
from the throne. It has an historical interest of its own, but beyond 
this is of value as illustrating the character of a man who is now, and 
perhaps for some time will be, at the head of affairs in Spain. The style 
is sometimes almost as intricately confused as in one of Cromwell's 
speeches, but good sense, good feeling, and honest purpose are con- 
spicuous throughout. 

. The position of General Martinez Campos when he became prime 
•minister, was very analogous to that of General Grant, when he first be- 
came President. In Cuba he had been to all intents and purposes ab- 
solute, and found it easy without in any way compromising himself, ' 
while it made him popular, to concede theoretical reforms, the responsi- 
bility of realizing which would fall on the government at home. Com- ' 
ing into power with no knowledge of civil affairs or of administrative 
details, he found himself surrounded by men grown gray in the profes- 
sion of politics, who raise objections and create difficulties, and who 
would be very glad to help him on the way to ruin if they found him 
too self-willed to be their tool, or too honest to be their accomplice. 

Professedly, the new cabinet is of the same party and carrying out 
the same policy with that which it in part displaced. Senor Canovas 
del Castillo supported it during the late Cortes in a very able speech, 
but there are said to be profound divergences of opinion, and even per- 
sonal animosities, between the former ami present official leaders of the 
Liberal -Conservative party. The divergence is said to be especially great 
concerning the reforms necessary in the island of Cuba. There is every 
reason to believe that the present prime minister is sincere in his opin- 
ions on this question, and resolved to carry them out in practice. This 
he perhaps cannot do with the existing Cortes, the members of which 
were returned in the interest of the former administration. 

It remains to be seen whether the Martinez Campos cabinet, after the 
changes which the new minister of the interior is making in the provin- 
cial governors, who practically decide most of the elections, will havi 
strength and courage enough to dissolve the Cortes sh/mhl they prcn 
unmanageable, and appeal to the country. In any event the Cuba 



944 FOKEIGN RELATIONS. 

question will be the important one of the next session. Should General 
Martinez Campos prevail in carrying out his views it will give him great 
strength, and he has personal qualities which might insure him a long 

tenure of office and of propularity. 

* # * # # # # 

I have, &c, - J.E.LOWELL. 



[Inclosare in No. 192.— Translation.] 



Extract from La Politlca of July 18 and 19, 1879. 

Most Excellent Sir : Although I informed your excellency by telegram of the 
terms I had indicated to the president-elect of the Cuba.i revolution, Don Vicente 
Garcia, I feel bound to set forth to your excellency in greater detail this affair, in 
which if I have won the approbation of the government of His Majesty, it has been 
owing to the deferent attention, aud never enough to be appreciated confidence, which 
they have shown to me. 

Finding myself on the 18th of December in the Sierra Maestra of Cuba, inspecting 
the encampments there, which have been so fatal to the fourth brigade of that di- 
vision, on account of its hygienic conditions, I received a telegram from General D. 
Manuel Cassola, iu which he informed me that the prisoner D. Esteban Duque de 
Estrada, some time ago liberated, had manifested to him the desire of some important 
leaders, and some members of the congress, to enter into negotiations with a view to 
peace. 

Although at some distance from Cuba, I embarked that very night for Santa Cruz 
in order to speak with Estrada, to communicate with Cassola, to decide on the spot 
and for myself what would be proper. 

I have reported to your excellency the doings of Mr. Pope in the month of May, the 
distrust with which he inspired me, and my persuasion that he was an unprincipled 
adventurer. In spite of this I permitted him to go to the enemy's camp, because*I was 
confident that with all his untrustworthiness, he would serve to open for us a way to 
relations which, if leading to nothing immediately, would bear fruit later. I was not 
mistaken in my reckoning ; those unofficial relations procured us the surrender of 
Don Estibau de Varona, with the permission, as he told me, of the then president* D. 
Tom its Estrada, and the capture of the latter's kinsman, Duque de Estrada. 

The moment Varona reached Manzanillo he put himself in communication with the 
leaders of those bands discouraged by fatigue, and at times by hunger, without re- 
sources, and who, desiring peace, did not dare to surrender, not only through fear of 
the treatment they might receive from us, but through distrust of each other. A few 
interviews and an armistice, svhich in a narrow, neutral ground permitted our soldiers 
to mix with the insurgents, and the discovery by the latter in our troops not only 
the generous character of the Spanish army, but also how well the country people 
were treated in the towns, at last broke their resolution, and the desire of peace made 
itself so manifest that the leaders agreed to send a committee to their government to 
try for it. 

This committee obtained some guarantees from the president, but the irrecoucila- 
bles were too strong for the government, and the committee were subjected to the law 
which imposed the penalty of death on all who should treat with us except on the 
basis of independence. 

In spite of the assurances which Varona gave me, your excellency will recollect 
that I cherished no hope of result with Camuguey, that I believed that it was not yet 
time, that his presumption was not sufficiently humbled, but that I was confident that 
the greater *part of the guerrilla parties of Manzanillo, and perhaps of Bayamo, would 
disband. 

In spite of the obstacles which arose in the business, the result answered my ex- 
pectations, though I will not conceal from your excellency that the government of 
the insurgents, by its treatment of the committee, contributed not a little to deepen 
the disseutions that existed among them. But that act of brute violence met with a 
prompt chastisement in the capture of the president of the executive council, and the 
death of the speaker of the congress, which delayed more than forty days a meet- 
ing for the choice of a new one, and the very active pursuit to which they were ex- 
posed, in spite of the rains which lasted longer than usual. The idea of peace introduced 
into their camp, which they had the baseness to attribute to me, though they as- 
serted that I proposed it through weakness, began to take root among the masses, and 
the impulse from below upward reached the head, a natural result of assertions dis- 
proved by our pursuit. 

This was the state of things when, on the 21st of December, I talked with Duque 
de Estrada, aud not trusting in the methoJ, although I had no private or official letter 



spain. 945 

to authorize my conduct, and eveu feared that another assassination would make the 
negotiations abortive, I ordered operations to be suspended between the sea, the 
river Sevilia, and the roads from Santa Cruz to Hato Potrero, and from that point to 
Brazo ; that is, a seventh part of the Center. This was a serious measure. I was con- 
scious of the objections to it ; nothing positive authorized me to give assurances that 
this neutrality would be respected, i knew that it would give an opportunity for at- 
tacks [on me] by many ; but if I wished to arrive at au understanding it was neces- 
sary to run the risk ; and I believe that, holding such a position and command as mine, 
it behooves not to consider the personal annoyances which may result from failure', 
but the benefit which may redound to our country from success. The loss would be 
all my own ; all the advantage my country's. 

Concert and meeting aud consequently agreement were impossible if our troops 
continued operations. I fixed no period, but limited myself to declaring that the 
termination (of the armistice) should be announced three days beforehand. I reserved 
to myself the right of lengthening or shortening it, because to keep fixing periods 
aud then extending them is, in my opinion, discreditable and a kind of higgling un- 
worthy of soldiers. 

I will not deny, your excellency, that I then expected that at the end of a few days 
they would tell me that they wished to treat on inadmissible terms. I labored at that 
time under two mistakes: I believed their number smaller and their presumption 
greater than it was. I had studied the pro and the con, as is commonly said. 1 was 
not neutralizing more than a small part of the war (three hundredths), and it was 
accordingly prosecuted with the greatest activity when the matter began to improve, 
and the soldiers to come out of the hospitals. In the neutralized territory the contact 
of the insurgents with our soldiers was most advantageous for us, because the meeting 
of the weak with the strong, of the hungry with him who has resources, of the naked 
with the clothed, of him who has no place of shelter with him who has camps aud 
sutlers' shops, cannot but weaken the resolution of the former; the courteous treat- 
ment which had been ordered was sure to undermine the officers ; the news of the 
suspension of hostilities where the congress was, and the negotiations with it, must 
have a decided influence in other departments. 

What was lost, then, in case these conferences were broken off? On the part of the 
country nothing, aud this is proved by the great number of surrenders which took 
place at this time. Much was gained for the future by dividing them ; the three 
tendencies' of the hostile camp, peace, autonomy, and independence defined them- 
selves — for your excellency knows that in moments of danger <-'>e most oppo 
wishes unite, and that if a respite is given, they reappear again in £ ater strength. 

So it happened here. Iu Sancti Spiritus some begged that the decision of the 
congress might be waited for, and I granted them a place of meeting, where I fur- 
nished them with supplies, and in that encampment cheers were given for peace and 
for Spain, and- they embraced our officers. Iu Bagamo whole bands surrendered 
together; in Holguin and in Tunas they avoided any fighting; and in Cuba, Maceo 
made superhuman efforts to raise their spirits, summoning all to the last soldier, aud 
attacking with au energy and success worthy of a bet'ter cause; but even iu the 
midst of this desperate effort he did not wish to shut tbe door of the future, aud,. 
what he had not done for ten years, after a bloody advantage iu which he kept pos- 
session of the field, he buries the dead, praises their valor, aud sends back to 
few wounded and prisoners who escaped the fury of the combat. 

All the advantage was on our side, we were always gaining gronud. If any one 
lost it was I, for treating with rebels unsuccessfully lessens the credit, aud there would 
not have been wanting those who would have talked of lost time, as if operation.', 
had not been going on everywhere else. 

The desire to treat having been excited, and having told Estrada my own opinio;, 
concerning the island, and what I believed that of the government to be, judging by 
the private correspondence wiiich was going on between me and the minister of 
Ultramar, I went to Havana to inform General Jovellar, to put myself iu accord with 
him, aud to hear his valuable counsels. That officer was, as he had been since the 
war began, iu full agreement with me, aud explained to me the embarrassed state of 
the treasury, the arrears Of pay continually increasing, aud the dim' nilties we should 
find ourselves iu if the war was not ended before June. I made a tour of inspection 
through Las Villas and Sancti Spiritus, to see for myself the execution of ray orders 
and was satisfied that nothing more could be asked of the army. Pancho Jim. 
had attempted an effective stroke, but as he had not the means, the destruction of 
part of his band, and the definitive dispersion of the rest wore the consequence. 

I returned to* Principe to bring matters to a head, and because I thought there 
been time to come to an understanding aud to pass from a purely confidential charai - 
ter to a semi-official or official one, aud having had an interview at Chorrillo with 
Messrs. Luaces and Roa, commissioned from the so-called corutnander-in-ehief of tin- 
Center, Goyo Benitez, to General Cassola, who by my orders had announced to him tin 
renewal of hostilities on the 20th, I was able to satisfy myself of the well-) 

CO F R 



946 FOREIGN 'relations. 

o-eneral desire to come to a definite result, and of the impossibility of it by reason of 
The dispersion of the bands, and above all because it was not yet known whether 
Vicente Garcia would accept the presidency, nor what his aspirations and projects 
were. Believing in their good faith, I appointed the 10th of February as the day 
before which terms must be proposed, and permitted a commissioner to start for Sancti 
Spiiitus and another in search of Vicente Garcia, but I reduced the neutralized terri- 
tory to about eight leagues square on the banks of the Sevilla, setting a cordon of 
posts and sentinels all around it. 

In fixing on the 10th February, I was thinking of the meeting of the Cortes on the 
luth. and wished to give definite news to the government of His Majesty, so that they 
could in the royal message parry the attacks of the opposition, and if they did not approve 
of my conduct they could remove me from command, since I had neither consulted them, 
nor qiren an account of the steps I had taken. 

The reasons I had for acting thus are three : Not to solicit from the government an 
authorization which could not be understanding^ given at so great a distance ; sec- 
ond, to assume all responsibility myself, leaving them in entire freedom ; and, third, 
not to give rise in Spain to hopes that might prove illusions. 

Some time before the first steps had been taken toward a conference between Vicente 
Garcia and General Prendergast, but since the former had been chosen president of the 
executive council, he thought that he could not be present at it, and sent his commis- 
sioners to Bauchuelo (Tunas), to which place the general came. There, after long de- 
bates, I being in direct communication by telegraph, I answered all questions, and 
fixed as a limit the terms which I reported to your excellency the same day, 30th Jan- 
uary, neutralizing the road between Tunas and the camp of the congress, so that mes- 
sages and reportsniight pass, because we had unfortunately severely wounded their 
commissioner, who bore my safe conduct, which prevented the order for meeting from 
reaching Vicente Garcia in time. 

On the r>th he asked for an interview with me, which could not take place on the 
6th at San Fernando owing' to a mistake; and on the 7th he came to see me, with 
seven other leaders and some of his officers, at Chorrilla. He presented himself in a 
very proper way, and I received him kindly, Generals Prendergast and Cassola be- 
ing present at the conversation, which lasted seven hours. Those who took part in 
it manifested their desire for peace ; they agreed that though they might prolong the 
war it would be the ruin of the country (Cuba) ; that in their preseut condition they 
could not conquer; that the happiness of Cuba was possible under the government of 
Spain ; that the terms were not ample enough ; and, above all, that the oath they had 
taken not to treat except on the basis of independence rendered all agreement null ; 
that there was no provision in their constitution for such a case, and it was necessary 
to appeal to the people. All ruy arguments and those of the generals were unable to 
conviuce them. 

Yiucente Garcia told me that, to facilitate a prompt pacification, he had that day 
I come and takeu the oath of office. The definitive result was that I answered them 
that I did not make the terms more liberal because they had already received the sanc- 
tion of the government ; that I could not extend the j>eriod without receiving at least 
a moral guarantee that, in case those of the East and of Villas did not agree, the ma- 
jority of Camaguey would accept ; and we parted with the greatest courtesy. 

I cannot express to your excellency the anxiety in which I was left. My presump- 
tion was that they were to be trusted ; that the reserve they had shown was due to 
the character of the natives of this country, and to their want of confidence in Spain, 
which cannot easily be effaced ; at the same time recognizing as one cause the oath 
they had taken, and the desire not to be accused of treachery by their companions, who 
still stood to their arms. 

But these were nothing more than my presumptions ; nothing more than my knowl- 
edge of the unfortunate state in which they were. There was the conviction that 
hatred of Spain was rapidly disappearing ; there was the certainty that the favorable 
movement came from below upwards with a terrible pressure ; but after all there was 
nothing but conviction and faith in myself; there was not a proof nor a material fact 
to confirm these ; and when I entered on this line of thought doubt took possession of 
my mind. 

The question was most serious. Should they persist in their choice of a new govern- 
ment by popular election, and I in not conceding a longer delay, then the pacification 
would be postponed, the war continued with the fury of despair, aud I become an ac- 
complice in the failure of peace. If, in virtue of my convictions, 1 conceded what 
they asked, a change of ideas might take place in the mass (of insurgents), and I 
should have lost a month and a half of operations in the best season of the year, 
equivalent to more than three months in the rainy season, to three thousand soldiers 
killed, to six millions more dollars spent, and to another effort on the part of Spain. 

I leave to the consideration of your excellency the alternative in which I found my- 
self. It was the traveler lost in the midst of the Avoods and lighted only by flashes, 
which served but to lead him further astray. I had the fate of my country in my 



Spain. 947 

bauds, for your excellency knows Letter tliau I the consequences which an error of 
mine would have brought upon Spain ; and I assure your excellency that my personal 
position was my least anxiety. I can say it now — I did not believe that I should be 
able to overcome the opposing elements here. 

The country and the King had rewarded me beyond my deserts, and I could not refuse 
myself to the sacrifice, for such it was to me. I dissimulated with all, even with the 
government, even with my most intimate friends. I had only one hope, the thought 
that Divine Providence is stretching its protecting hand over Spain, and tbat to this 
I owe my good fortune, that it was my duty to expend the fame and popularity I then 
enjoyed for the common good, and that to arrive at a good result I ought to overcome 
difficulties in silence, and put forward only the favorable circumstances. I arrived in 
Cuba, and my ignorance of the state of things ?nd the first successes carried me very] 
far, for we always receive with delight what flatters our wishes. I was impression-/ 
able, and thought the work more easy. In a short time, encountering almost insuper-V 
able obstacles, seeing them increased by a fatal season, finding myself without soldiers 
(they were all in the hospital), resources failing, for the loan was rather a relief than .* 
a solution, my courage sank at times, and, above all, when I saw that deceitful hopes j 
led public opinion to expect a speedy issue ; I saw that my reputation was wasting I 
away in vain projects and illusions, and that, considering everything, I was, perhaps, / 
the only person who could accomplish the undertaking with the least delay. I can ( 
assure your excellency that until I had on my shoulders the responsibility of my « 
country's well-being I had never known what anguish was ; until I saw my mistake's 
I had not lamented the narrowness of my understanding. To decide rightly where 
only one's own fortune is at stake imports little ; to decide rightly or to err when that 
of one's country is at stake is very grievous, is horrible, and I hope I may never pass 
through such risks again. 

This explained, I need not attempt to make your excellency understand my hesita- 
tions on the 8th, which could not be removed by my colleague in command, D. Joaquin 
Jovellar, notwithstaudiug his devotion and friendship for me, because he was far from 
the scene of events. "T^ 

On the morning of the 9th I removed to Zanjo/fj, the point nearest the enemy's camp, 
and at twelve next day Messrs. Eosa and Luaces presented themselves with a letter 
from Vicente Garcia accrediting them in their mission. These gentlemen stated to me I 
thar the executive and congress having met, had informed themselves of the result of \ 
the interview we had held on the 7th, and after along discussion had agreed on the ) 
impolicy of continuing war, and on the impossibility of treating in which they found ( 
themselves, because they were not empowered to do so, and it would be illegal ; that 
they were bound to give an account of the whole to the people ; but that, considering 
the pressure of circumstances, they would resign and appeal to the people and troops 
gathered there ; that this took place, and that a committee of seven persons (five of 
them irreconcilables) was chosen by popular election in order that negotiations might 
go on. The committee discussed and modified my terms, and submitted the result to 
the people, who accepted it unanimously under condition that the States of the East I 
and Center should be heard. The people being asked if they were for peace, answered 
almost unanimously in the affirmative. Asked afterward it" the war should be con- 
tinued in case Oriente or Villars would not accept peace, three-quarters were in favor 
of peace even then, and the other fourth for Avar. 

In view of this I went on to discuss the conditions,, and, there being no difficulty ex- 
cept about the first. I consulted General Jovellar by telegraph, in the presence of the 
commissioners, and bad the satisfaction of letting them see the identity of opinion of 
the two authorities. There remained the question of time to be allowed, which I pro- 
posed to leave to the government of His Majesty, and they returned to their camp to 
submit the modifications. 

While they were absent I reflected maturely, and resolved on my part to concede a 
delay until the end of the mouth. The considerations which moved me to this were 
my not wishing to compromise General Jovellar, because if, contrary to all appearances, 
there were a change, he would remain disposable to relieve me in command if the gov- 
ernment disapproved of my conduct, or the opposition and public opinion pronounced 
against me in case of failure. I not considering as such the continuance in the field 
of Maceo, as I was then inclined to do, having heard of the capture of the convoy of 
Florida, with 12,000 percussion caps, a case of medicines, and some loads of tinned 
meat, with a loss to us of one officer and 28 soldiers killed and 5 wounded, and of the 
defeat of a column of 200 men of the regiments of Madrid and Asturias in Juan 
Mulato, with the loss, as was then believed, of 100 men. though 1 know now it was nor 
above 50, and of the commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Cabezas. 

The commissioners returned in the afternoon of the LOth wiili the definitive terms, 
which I accepted, and a copy of which I inclose, and I at at once granted the delay, 
and then to facilitate matters, without their asking it, I ordered the generals in com- 
mand to suspend offensive hostilities in the whole territory of the war. 

The insurgents desire peace so sincerely thai the commissioners elected for each 



948 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

state are the most influential and intelligent persons in it, and that your excellency 
may be sure of it I will give their names : For Cuba, Major-General Maximo Gomez, 
Brigadier-General Rafael Rodriquez, Major Enrique Callazo ; for Bayamo, Major Au- 
gustin Castellanos, Ensign Jose" Badraque ; for Las Villas, the deputies Spoturno and 
Marcos Garcio, Colonel Enrique Mola and Don Ramon Perez Trujillo ; for Tuuas and 
Holguin, Vicente Garcia. 

These elections are guarantees of good faith. Concerning Sancti Spiritus and Villas, 
with the exception of the thirty men of Cecilio Gonzalez, I harbor no doubt, only an 
outlaw or two aud the runaway negroes will be left in the field, isolated, without flag 
and without arms. In Principe, possibly, a gathering or so of what are called planie- 
ados, who obey no one, and whom the very insurgents have almost exterminated. 

In Bayamo the leaders who remain have given assurances that they will consult 
with the commissioners and are calling in their scattered followers. In Tunas and 
Holguin, Vicente Garcia has every kind of influence. In Cuba, Maceo respects only 
Maximo Gomez, aud all affirm that he will obey the dispositions of his government. I 
am not confident but he will be left reduced to the last extremity without the bands 
of Edwardo Mariuol, Limbano Sanchez, Martinez Freire, and Leite Vidal, and only a 
part of the people of his brother Antonio Maceo, Guellermon, and Crombet will follow 
him. In any event parties of banditti will remain in those mountains. 

This is, in conclusion, a loose narrative of what has happened aud of my present 
impressions and hopes. It only remains to set before you a sketch of the motives of 
my policy, and the reasons on which I have based my conduct iu these sixteen months. 
I have not always been right, but I have tried to correct my mistakes the moment I 
became aware of them. 

Since the year 18G9, when I landed on this island with the first re-enforcements, I was 
preoccupied with the idea that the insurrection here, though acknowledging as its 
catise the hatred of Spain, yet that this hatred was due to the causes that have sepa- 
rated our colonies from the mother country, augmented in the present case by the 
promises made to the Antillas at different times (1812-37 and *45), promises which not 
only have not been fulfilled, but, as I understand, have uot been permitted to be so by 
the Cortes when at different times their execution had been begun. 

While the island had no great development, its aspirations were confined by love of 
nationality ami respect for authority; but wheu one day after another passed with- 
out hopes being satisfied, but, on the contrary, the greater fieedom permitted now and 
then by a governor were more than cancelled by his successor; when they were con- 
vinced that the colony went on in the same way; when bad officials and a worse 
administration of justice more and more aggravated difficulties; when the provincial 
governorships, continually growing worse, fell at last into the bauds of men without 
training or education, petty tyrants who could practice their thefts and sometimes 
their oppressions, because of the distance at which they resided from the supreme author- 
ity, public opiuion, until then restrained, began vehemently to desire those liberties 
which, if they bring much good, contain also some evil, and especially wheu applied 
to countries that have so peculiar a life of their own, and are without preparation for 
them. A people sometimes vehemently desires what is not best for it — the unknown — 
and when everything is denied, aspire to everything. So it happened here. I do not 
blame the captains- general nor the government of that epoch. They thought they 
were acting for the best; but they were separated from the people, and had about them 
only partisans of the stains quo, and very few of progress, and even these, persons of 
heated imagination, but cautious, did not make mauifest their ideas, and even ap- 
plauded acts which were carrying the ship on the reef, like those inhabitants of Eug- 
land who kindled bonfires to attract ships. 

The 10th of October, 1868, came to open men's eyes; the eruption of the volcano iu 
which so many passions, so many hatreds, just and unjust, had been heaped up was 
terrible, and almost at the outset the independence of Cuba was proclaimed. The 
concessions which General Lersandi theu made were of no avail ; the triumph of Bay- 
amo was not deadened by the heroic resistance of the garrisons of Tuuas and Holguin ; 
the army was very small, and they believed victory easy. Many Spaniards believed 
that autonomy should be granted ; and who knows what might have followed if those 
masses had been well led, and had not quarreled with the natives of the Peninsula. 

The certainty of triumph blinded them. In its turn public sentiment and patriotism 
were awakened in us, and the country was divided into two irrecoucilable bands, ex- 
treme from the first, confiding the triumph of their cause to extermination and the 
torch ; and although in these niue years there have been attempts at more humane 
systems, they have been of short duration. Public opinion was too strong for govern- 
ments of whatever politics. Hardly was a governor-general appointed when they 
weakened his authority by allowing the press to speak of his dismissal; and these 
officers, not feeling themselves sustained by the government, tried to find some sup- 
port in a public opinion continually more and more overexcited, and there were times 
when the war was on the point of being victoriously ended, when a change of com- 
mander came to undo all that had been gained to make the insurgents understand that 



spain. 949 

their constancy would save them ; and a serious succession of feats of arms raised their 
spirits, and by the advantage of ground and their familiarity with it, they defeated 
large columns with hardly a battalion of men. Hunger in the villages swelled the 
ranks of the enemy. They almost put us on the defensive, and as we had to guard an 
immense property, the mission of the army became very difficult. 

The instability of governments in Spain, the cantonal war first, and the civil war 
afterward, encouraged our enemies, who began to doubt in proportion as the throne of 
Don Alfonso became more firm, and when they found themselves shut up in villas and 
unable to carry out their project of extending the war to Matanzas and Cardenas. 
But public spirit had decayed, and the invasion of Spiritus and Villas marked a fatal 
period. It was our fortune that the military mau who commanded against them had 
not, because a foreigner and because of his character, in spite of his courage, the sym- 
pathy of his subordinates, and that the battle of Palma Sola subdued his energy. But 
the war went on languidly for want of forces, public sentiment growing weaker, and 
the army remembering too well its reverses. The principle of authority was strength- 
ened, and I believe that, with more resources, we should have triumphed in 1875 and 
1876. 

The insignificant affairs of the railway of Spiritus, the attack on Villa Clara, Ciego 
de Avila, and Moron made a great impression on public opinion, which saw in everything, 
with frightful exaggeration, to be sure, grave and irremediable evils, and the unfor- 
tunate carelessness at Victoria de las Tunas came to stamp the position of affairs at 
the very time when re- enforcements and help were expected from the mother country. 
General Jovellar was the victim of events, and when perhaps he was about to grasp 
the laurel of his toils the government decided that I should come. 

These, roughly sketched, are in my conception the facts from 1868 to the end of 
1876. I on the one hand found myself in an easy position. I brought large re-enforce- 
ments; I brought money (not half what was needed); I had a colleague in the cap- 
tain-general, who lightened me of an immense labor and whose loyal help and pru- 
dent counsel were of so great service to me. I had re-established the principle of 
authority, but had against me a public spirit without life. Nobody had higher aspira- 
tions than to save his crop of sugar. In official regions the enemy was thought infe- 
rior, but the commanders generally believed it unsafe to operate with less than three 
battalions ; there was no venturing beyond the highways ; much was said of positions ; 
displeasure showed itself among the higher officers through jealousy of those I brought 
with me ; the rank and file reckoned the numbers of the enemy, and my first operation 
was universally condemned and feared. But confidence re-established itself when I 
presented myself in the camp, and (your excellency permit me the vanity) when 
they recognized in the commander-in-chief their old general of brigade. Then hope 
revived, and the operation was as fortunate as I hoped. 

I had against me also the exhaustion of the country, the natural waut of confidence 
produced by alternations of fortune, since successes did not encourage our people nor 
discourage the enemy. I had against me the not holding more territory than that in 
our immediate occupation, and that, as my war was essentially offensive, I was to make 
it in what was to me unknown ground, and where they were at home ; and I must 
carry everything, create everything, protect everything. The burning of a sugar-mill, 
the taking of a village, was more terrible than the cutting off of a column. 

And after all what did we gain by beating the enemy ". Little, unless we extermi- 
nated them ; and extermination was impossible; it was not in my character ; it was 
useless to try to employ it. Neither the fulfillment of duty nor fear of responsibility 
nor patriotic sentiment obliges me to commit cruelties, to be untrue to my conscience. 

The war was one of separation, of independence, with all the horrors of civil war. i 
My problem was to make it a civil war with all the generosities of international wars. / 
The war was without quarter, and I expected to give and not receive it. If it was \ 
given there were no drfficulty in surrendering; the defeated does not fly so swiftly as 
when he is trying to escape death; hatred is lessened, fear banished, and comparison- 
are drawn between the comfort enjoyed in one's village and the alarms, dangers, and 
privations which are risked in the'field. Not giving quarter to us, the shameful cases \ 
of feeble resistance could not occur. Excess of fear makes the soldier a hero. 

My opinion for these nine years had been fixed; it was necessary to develop it. 
Two roads led to the same end— one slow, progressive, and little conformable to my 
character, but which was recommended by the circumstances. I at once issued pub- 
lic orders taking the first steps on this road, restricted orders, advancing somewliat 
more, and in proportion as the progress of the war authorized me, I took another step 
of policy in accord with General Jovellar and the government of His Majesty. 

The second road— that which I would have followed, that which I have several 
times particulary indicated— was shorter, and I think that my indications were not 
pointed enough. 

For my own part, had the responsibility been mine, free of the Ctfrtes, and empow- 
ered to decide for the government of His Majesty, on condition of at once rendering 
an account, I would have ventured everything. On the 7tb of November, L876, there 
would have appeared in the Havana Gazette the disembargo of estates, a general par- 



950 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

don, the assimilation of Cuba with Spain, orders to treat prisoners well ; and to show 
that this was not weakness, bnt strength, there was the argument of my one hundred 
thousand bayonets. Public opinion I should have little regarded. Perhaps the war 
might have been ended some time ago. It was policy ; but war is made with policy. 
It was the flag with the motto of liberty. Or take away the flag and give, once for 
all. the liberty which at last must be given. When we are strong we are able and 
ought to be generous. 

Since considerations of a higher order did not permit me to do this, I advanced by 
degrees, and after my orders of November, some of which were not approved, at the 
first positive advantage I gained, which was the breaking up of the bauds of villas, 
the decree of disembargo was issued, when some progress had been made in other de- 
partments, and in the regulation of towns the name of alcalde was introduced through 
modesty. 

I have come now by slow stages to the question of the day, and perhaps some will 
ask how I offered the terms which I reported on the :30th of January, and will add that 
better might have been obtained. 

At present, I suppose so, but I understand by advantageous terms for the govern- 
ment what contributes to satisfy the desires and aspirations of the people; I proposed 
the first condition, because I believe they must fulfill it. I wish tbat the municipal 
law, the law of provincial assemblies and representation iu the Cortes, shouldbe estab- 
lished. For the present we will make use of the laws now in force, and then with the 
assistance of the deputies, modifications and arrangements can be made to complete 
them. Technical details will be considered which are beyond my competence. The 
Taw of labor is to be settled, the question of labor supply, the necessary changes of 
property are to be studied, the fearful and unsustainable problem of slavery is to be 
studied before foreign nations impose a solution of it upon us, the penal code is to be 
studied and the province of the courts defined, the form of contributions and assess- 
ment of taxes determined, and some attention paid to schools and public works. All 
these problems whose solution concerns the people must be solved after hearing their 
representatives, not by the reports of juntas, chosen through favoritism or for politi- 
cal reasons. They cannot be left to the will of the captain-general, the head of a de- 
partment, or the colonial minister, who generally, however competent, do not kuow 
the country. 

I do not wish to make a momentary peace; I desire that this peace be the beginning 
of a bond of common interests between Spain and her Cuban provinces, and that this 
bond be drawn continually closer by the identity of aspirations, and the good faith of 
both. 

Let not the Cubans be considered as pariahs or minors, but put on an equality with 
other Spaniards in everything not inconsistent with their present condition. 

It was on the other hand impossible, according to my judgment and conscience, not 
to grant the first condition ; not to do it was to postpone indefinitely the fulfillment 
of a promise made in our present constitution. It was not possible that this island, 
richer, more populous, and more advanced morally and materially than her sister, 
Porto Rico, should remain without the advantages and liberties long ago planted in the 
latter with good results, and the spirit of the age, and the decision of the country 
gradually to assimilate the oclonies to the Peninsula, made it necessary to grant the 
promised reform Sj which would have been already established and surely more amply 
if the abnormal sate of things had not concentrated all the attention of government 
on the extirpation of the evil which was devouring this rich province. 

I did not make the last constitution ; I had no part in the discussion of it. It is now 
the law, and as such I respect it, and as such endeavor to apply it. Bat there was in 
it something conditional, which I think a danger, a motive of distrust, and I have 
wished that it might disappear. Nothing assures me that the present ministry will 
continue in power, and I do not know whether that which replaces it would believe 
the fit moment to have arrived for fulfilling the precept of the constitution. 

I desire the peace of Spain, and this will not be firm while there is war or disturb- 
ance in the richest jewel of her crown. Perhaps the insurgents would have accepted 
promises less liberal and more vague than those set forth in this condition; but even 
had this been done, it would have been but a brief postponement, because those liber- 
ties are destined to come for the reasons already given, with the difference that Spain 
now shows herself generous and magnanimous, satisfying just aspirations which she 
might deny, and a little later, probably very soon, would have been obliged to grant 
them, compelled by the force of ideas and of the age. Moreover, she has promised 
over and over again to enter on the path of assimilation, and if the promise were more 
vague, even though the fulfillment of this promise were begun, these people would 
have the right to doubt our good faith and to show a distrust unfortunately warranted 
by the failings of human nature itself. 

The not adding another one hundred thousand to the one hundred thousand families 
that mourn their sons slain in this pitiless war, and the cry of peace that will resound 
in the hearts of the eighty thousand mothers who have sons in Cuba, or liable to con- 
scription, would be a full equivalent for the payment of a debt of justice. 



SPAIN. 951 

The condition of freeing the slaves and Chinese who are among the insurgents has 
its inconveniences. These would he still greater hut for the Moret law, and were uot 
every one conscious that ampler modifications must soon he made. If the granting of 
the first condition is the fulfillment of a promise, there is as little new in that of which 
I am now speaking. 

The third article of the Moret law expressly directs that fugitive negroes and Chi- 
nese shall not be sent back to their plantations, but assigned to the battalions of 
f reedmen, their owners, if not in rebellion, being indemnified, and this was because the 
government then, as I do now, understood how dangerous the sending back of these 
slaves would be. They would demoralize the blacks and turn maroons. As to the 
Chinese, I asked some time ago for a change in the existing law. The negro has been 
discussed and pitied. He in the end can free himself with the product of his toil. The 
Chinamen never, and all make him their victim. 

The other condition of oblivion and pardon I think is in the conscience of all, and 
in the character of the Spanish people, which is fierce in combat, and then generously 
forgives and pardons all, and gives the hand to him who a moment before was an 
enemy. This generosity is characteristic of our soldiers. 

I say it with satisfaction, I proposed the conditions and have not modified them. I 
proposed at once what I thought just, without higgling, and since I was not dealing 
with foreigners, but with Spaniards, with brothers, I have given them everything I 
could without prejudice to anyone, without placing them in the position of being 
peculiarly favored. 

It will be asked if I could have obtained peace without concessions, and I will answer 
that I think I might — that by June I expected to have certainly finished, but that 
greater numbers would have remained in the woods, which would have been a disturb- 
ance to agriculture, a danger for the future ; that they would not have struck their 
dag, which would have attracted those who had emigrated. It is better to convince 
than crush an enemy. We should have made of Cuba a new colony, with the disad- 
vantage of climate, distance, and inequality of streugth. As a soldier, I should have 
increased my fame, but as a Spaniard I should have felt remorse of conscience. More 
sacrifices would have been made, and force establishes nothing firmly. 

Many accusations, many attacks will be directed against me whenever I return to 
Spain ; much abuse of empty words will be made to censure me. Your excellency. I 
can answer all, although no orator, and if my policy is blamed by political civilians. I 
shall have the defense of the inhabitants, and, what is better, of my conscience. I say 
nothing of the approbation of the King and his ministers ; the telegram of your excel- 
lency is the highest reward of my conduct to which I can aspire, and I avail myself of 
this occasion to have the honor of informing your excellency that the support of your 
excellency and the colonial minister, and the unlimited confidence which the govern- 
ment has shown me, the courage with which they have defended me from all attacks. 
giving a great prestige to my authority, has made my work easier, and I owe to the 
government of His Majesty this feeble testimony of my profound gratitude. 

What shall I say of GeneralJoaquin Jovellar ? His devotion, his disinterestedness, 
his prudent counsels, his efficacious co-operation, make words insufficient to express 
my gratitude. 

The Spanish party and volunteers, respecting all orders even when most opposed to 
their former ideas, helping to relieve the necessities of those but yesterday our enemies, 
respecting the principle of authority and standing always in arms as a reserve and some- 
times in the front ranks, are worthy of praise. 

The army, your excellency — I feel more than ever that my style is so poor, and a- uaj 
words would do no justice to the facts if I tried to relate them, it must suffice to indi 
them — has fought whenever it saw the enemy, without reckoning his numbers: lias 
had nothing but its rations and gone unpaid without murmuring; has not seen a town 
in sixteen months except when in hospital ; has seeu half its comrades march away to 
the other world or to Spain, aud though cast down, has maintained discipline, has 
generous with the conquered, who, being the weaker, employed surprise and ambasi 
in fighting us. The Spanish soldier, I say it with pride, may bear comparison with tin- 
best in the world. 

I will add. your excellency, that many sons of Cuba have fought at our side with 
heroic gallantry aud excellent results, and that we owe to them many of our sum 
To the Valor of Spaniards they add a knowledge of the mountains, and they equal us 
in loyalty. This latter quality has been eveu more brilliant among the many people 
>f color who fight in our ranks. 1 do not remember a case of desertion anion- them. 
and their temperauce, subordination, and coin-age place them among our besl soldiers. 

I have thought it my duty to report to your excellency not only the lads but my 
own appreciation of them, in order that His Majesty and his ministers may have suf- 
ficient (lata to form an opinion. 

ASSINIO MARTINEZ DE CAMPOS 
Puerto Prixcipe, February 18, 1878. 



952 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

iS T 0. 448. 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts. 

TSo. 104] Legation of the United States, 

Madrid, August 20, 1870. (Eeceived September 10.) 

Sir : I have the honor to inclose copy and translation of an important 
decree concerning- the island of Cuba, published in the Gaceta of the 17th 
instant. 

From a perusal of it you will see how far-reaching and general are the 
reforms proposed by the present ministry, and how many interests and 
prejudices are likely to be roused to opposition when they come to be 
discussed in the Cortes. That General Martinez Campos, and the colo- 
nial minister believed them necessary, if Cuba is to be retained as a de- 
pendency, there can be no doubt, for the more intelligent Spaniards ad- 
mit that the country cannot afford another war. But as the differences 
of opinion in respect of the nature and amount of these reforms extend 
to the Cubans themselves, it may be questioned whether so necessary a 
remedy will be applied promptly and boldly enough to be efficacious. 
I have, &c, 

J. K. LOWELL. 



[Inclosure in ~So. 194. — Translation.] 

Ministry of Ultramar. 

Sire : When in Jane last the labors of the legislature, called together by Your Majesty 
ou the previous 10th of March, began, circumstances more powerful than the desire 
and wish of the government, irresistibly hindered the discussion and enactment of 
projects relating to the island of Cuba, bearing upon points and particulars demanding 
especial attention and care, and which it was wished to have examined and decided in 
Parliament, with the assistance of the deputies elected to represent those provinces in 
the national assembly. 

One of these circumstances especially, perhaps the principal obstacle to designs so 
patriotic, was the real and insuperable impossibility, springing from well-known causes 
and accidents, of having that representation during the first session of the Cortes as com- 
plete as was necessary to satisfy the mind of those who, for some time have been of 
opinion that those questions should be only provisionally settled until the deputies of 
the Antilles could be present to solve them definitively. Those of them who were pres- 
ent and took part in the deliberations of the lower house, and the senators, did not them- 
selves hesitate to express the opinion that the debates on the q uestion should begin only 
when the legislature came together again, and even considered it perilousand improper 
that the government should have introduced it by the draft of a bill when no one could 
donbb that it would be impossible to discuss and pass it before the inevitable suspen- 
sion of the session. 

Yielding, therefore, to so prudent and discreet a desire, the minister who signs this 
has postponed fulfilling the solemn promises contained in the august words pronounced 
by Your Majesty, at the solemn act of opening the Cortes, till the moment when they 
shall resume their deliberations, but with the firm intent not to delay longer nor for 
any reason the presentation of such formulations as come within his power, in order, so 
far as he can, to satisfy an honest zeal to submit to the wisdom of Parliament what he 
considers wisest for the delinitive settlement of what surfers by being left provisional. 

Certainly since the beneficent peace which, without cruelty, chastisements, rancor, 
or revenge, put an end to the ten years' fratricidal war in those Spanish regions, now 
so much in ueed of repose, of industry, of security, and of confidence, much has been 
done, and in a short time, to settle upon bases of intelligent assimilation what forms 
the moral of the life of a people, its territorial and administrative division, its munici- 
pal and provincial organization, its electoral laws. It was the glory of the late minis- 
try to carry out, proposing them opportunely for the wise approbation of Your Majesty, 
reforms so important and hitherto so easily and profitably put in operation. It has 
fallen to the undersigned to execute the orders of Your Majesty, after submitting his 
projects to the approval of the council of ministers and the sanction of the sovereign, 
in a more modest sphere, introducing into the island of Cuba in little more than three 
months the law of hypothecation, with its regulations, the penal code, the legitimate 



spain. 953 

plan of a budget, which, besides normalizing au economical situation — unsettled, oue 
might say, since 1868, and above all since 1874 — contains the elements of reducing, at 
they have been considerably, the expenses and burden of taxation, and, lastly, the bases 
of a stable civil service, and of preparation for a period of imperturbable legality, the 
unanimous aspiration, doubtless, of whoever feels a truly Spanish heart beat in his 
breast. 

But many of these reforms have had as a guaranty of their litness the preparation 
and enlightenment of the knowledge and study of wise commissions, formed of men 
most competent, and of indisputably exceptional qualifications of wisdom and experi- 
ence, excepting him who says this, of those of which he was a member. 

Accordingly, as we are now concerned with projects in which it is essential to solve 
promptly questions far more difficult, if not for their novelty, for their complexity and 
special application, it cannot seeni strange to any one that, in order to profit by the 
parliamentary interregnum, although on general principles the government has already 
marked out its line of conduct, we should seek as a previous study of what is most 
suitable to the island of Cuba in respect of the system of taxation, commercial rela- 
tions, and the exceptional condition of some of its inhabitants, the special help of 
those persons who, as more immediately interested in the lot of all those inhabitants, 
and who at the present time know most nearly the state of opinion, and by a great 
preponderance its needs and demands, can lend the government greater and better 
help to go on with success in the course it has taken, a course which it is proposed to 
follow to the end without delays or vacillations of any kind whatever, in order to ful- 
fill what it understands to be its mission, and which it is its duty to realize. 

With this object, and considering who are the j)ersons who can soonest accomplish 
it because already in Europe, the minister who has the honor to address Your Majesty 
thinks the opportune moment come for the naming of a commission, principally 
composed of seuators and deputies representing the island of Cuba, who shall be 
charged as quickly as possible, and after examining the many and now classified docu- 
ments collected in the colonial ministry, to report to the government what it thinks 
most adequate and suitable in respect of the questions above mentioned, and espec- 
ially in what concerns the series of measures or the measure to be adopted in order 
to complete or change the laws in force concerning the social condition of the before- 
mentioned inhabitants, in order that the generous and noble sentiments of Your Maj- 
esty may be faithfully and loyally realized as soon as possible. 

JRelying, therefore, on these considerations, the undersigned minister, with the ap- 
proval of the cabinet, has the honor to submit to Your Majesty's approbation the fol- 
lowing project of a decree. 

Sire, vour most obedient servant, 

SALYADOE DE ALBACETE. 

Madrid, August 15, 1879. 

ROYAL DECREE. 

Considering the reasons set forth by the colonial minister, with the approval of the 
cabinet, I decree as follows: 

Article I. To report to the government on the terms in which shall be proposed tc 
the Cortes, when they renew their labors, the system of taxation of the island of 
Cuba, that of its commercial relations generally and nationally considered, and that 
of its tariff, as well as concerning the definitive solution that should be given to the 
questions raised by the exceptional condition of many of the inhabitants of the said 
island, there shall be formed in Madrid a commission, of which shall form part the 
persons named by me on the proposal of the colonial minister, from among those who 
are now most fitted to know the situation of those provinces. 

Art. II. The commission referred to in the preceding article, alter examining all the 
numerous data existing in the central bureau of administration, shall present to the 
government so soon as possible, and before the reassembling of the legislature, the re- 
sult of its labors, and a definitive report for the concrete solution of all the questions 
submitted to its examination and judgment. 

Art. III. The colonial minister shall take all the most efficacious measures 1<> pro- 
vide the commission with the means of promptly and completely accomplishing its 
trust. 

Given at the royal seat of San Ildefonso, l">tli August, 1879. 

ALFONSO. 

The colonial minister : 

Salvador de Albacete. 

royal decree. 

In virtue of what the minister of Ultramar has proposed, and in accordance with 
the decree of this date, for the creation of a commission to furnish information as ti- 
the projects of a law to be submitted to the Cortes, when it shall renew it> work, I 



954 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

nominate as members of said commission the Captain-General of the Army and Sen- 
ator of the Kingdom, D. Joaquin Jovellar, who will discharge the duties of President ; 
the Very Reverend Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba; D. Angusto Amblard, D. Juan 
Manuel'Sanchez Bustamante, D. Jose Silverio Jorrin, D. Juan Bueno y Blanco. D.' 
Leon Crespo de Laserua, D. Manuel Fernandez de Castro, the Marquises de la Victoria 
de las Tunas, of O'Gaban y de San Carlos de Pedroso, and D. Vicinte Galarza, sen- 
ators of the Kingdom ; D. Antonio Fernandez Chorah, D. Bernardo Portuondo, 1). 
Calixto Bernal, D. Julio Apezteguia, D. Jose Argumosa, D. Martin Gonzalez del Valle, 
D. Manuel Arininan, D. Mariano Cancio Villaamil, D. Matnerto Pulido, D. Miguel Mar- 
tinez Campos, D. Rafael Maria de Labra, and U. Santiago Vineut, deputies; D. Man- 
uel Calvo and D. Pedro Sotolongo, counsels of the administration of the island of 
Cuba; D. Carlos Valcarcel, vice-admiral of the navy; D. Antonio Lopez y Lopez, 
marquis of Comillas; and D. Manuel Jose de Posadillo, ex-regent of the Audiencia 
of Havana. 

Given at the roval seat of San Ildefonso, the loth August, 1879. 

ALFONSO. 

The colonial minister : 

Salvador de Albacete. 



No. 441). 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts. 

No. 195.] Legation of ihe United States, 

Madrid, August 22, 1879. (Received September 10.) 
Sir: With reference to your instruction No. 14G, relative to the extra- 
ordinary taxes imposed on certain American citizens in the island of 
Cuba, 1 have now the honor to inclose herewith a copy of my note to 
the minister of state upon the subject, and of a copy and translation of 
his note in reply, from which you will perceive that the matter has been 
referred to the governor-general of that island with a view to a definite 
decision in regard thereto. 

I have, &c, J. R. LOWELL. 



[Inclosure No. 1 in Xo. 195.] 

Mr. Lowell to the Dulce of Tetuan. 

Legation of the United States^ 

Madrid, May 28, 1879. 

Excellency: In a. conversation which I had the honor to hold with the predecessor 
of your excellency in the ministry you so worthily fill, I represented to him in strong 
terms the hardships to which American citizens domiciled iu the island of Cuba, con- 
ceived themselves to be exposed by the exaction from them of extraordinary imposts, 
higher than those paid by subjects of the German Empire. 

The importance of the commercial intercourse between Cuba and the United States 
is so great, that they find it hard to understand why special difficulties should appa- 
rently be thrown in its way by subjecting them to what, when compared with some 
others, seems rather to be a special disability thau their proper share in a general 
burden. 

I represented to Mr. Silvela, though not for a moment admitting the justice of such 
an inference, how easily such a distinction might be taken advantage of by desigi 
and interested persons, to misrepresent the friendly disposition and attitude of t 
toward the United States, and thus to give an unfavorable bias to public opiuio, .. 
the latter country. 

Mr. Silvela seemed to be impressed by the importance of these considerations, and 
suggested that I should furnish the government of His Catholic Majesty with, a list of 
Americans domiciled in Cuba, on whom these exactions bore with peculiar fo " u1 .ships, 
giving me to understand that he would use his influence to have the excess '- 
in such cases remitted. j. 

Having received a partial list of the American citizens domiciled iu Ca 
themselves thus aggrieved, I have the honor to inclose a copy thereof foj ,-, >ur excel- 
lency's consideration. 



spain. 955- 

The collection of the auiouut claimed was suspended ou the representation of our 
consul-general in Havana in order to allow of remonstrance on the part of the United 
States, and accordingly the question is not of returning money already paid, but simply 
of allowing it to remain uncollected. 

I feel sure that if the government of His Catholic Majesty could bring itself to see 
the propriety of making this concession (if concession there be, which I do not feel 
authorized to admit), it would be accepted by the government I have the honor to- 
represent as a fresh proof of friendly feeling, and of a desire to draw closer amicable 
relations so important to both countries. 

I gladly avail myself of this occasion to renew to your excellency the assurance of 
my most distinguished consideration. 

J. R. LOWELL. 



[In closure Xo. 2 in Xo. 103— Translation.! 

The Bale of Teiiuin to Mr. Lowell. 

Ministry of State. 

June 2(i, 1-".'. 
Excellency : With reference to the latest note of the legation under your worthy 
charge, relative to the claims of certain North American citizens on accouut of the- 
contribution exacted from them in the island of Cuba, I have the honor to make 
known to your excellency that the minister of ultramar has communicated the con- 
tents of said note to the governor-general of the island of Cuba, in order that the direc- 
tion of the treasury may be put in possession of the data relative to this affair, ami in 
view of it, to report so soon as may be what it may judge proper, or may decide them 
if it should be possible, in strict accordance with existing laws. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to reiterate to your excellency the assurance of 
my most distinguished consideration. 

The Duke of TETUAN, 



Xo. 450. 

Mr. Lowell to Mr. Evarts. 

STo. 19G.] Legation or the United States, 

Madrid, August 22, 1879. (Eeceived September 10.) 
Sir : Referring' to my dispatch ISTo. 146, I have now the honor to in- 
close herewith a copy and translation of a note from the minister of 
state, informing me that the excess of tonnage dues exacted at Manila 
from the American vessels Bnllion, Frank Lambeth, Washington, Henry 
A. Litchfield, and Stephen, has been ordered to be returned to the con- 
signees of said vessels. 
1 have, &c, 

J. E, LOTVELL. 



[Iiiclosnre in Xo 196— Translation.] 

The Uuke of Tetnan to Mr. Lowell. 

Ministry ok State. 

July 31, L6? 

..xcELLEXcy ; I have the honor to make known to your excellency, referring to the 
affair which occasioned your note of the 30th December last, as to the arrival at Manila 
of the vessels Bullion, Frank Lambeth, Washington, Henry A. Litchfield, and Stephen, 
that the minister of ultramar iuforms me that he has ordered the restitution of the 
add'"' * al sum collected from the consignees of said vessels by exacting tonnage 

ej to the number of Spanish tons, instead of those which appeared in the vou- 
ch vessel. 

iyself of this opportunity to reiterate to your excellency the assurance 
most dis„i_Tiiished consideration. 

The Duke of TETUAN, 



~ r> LIBRARY OF CONGRE<3«? 

956 FOREIGN EELATIOK |llH||linnnn|||| 

No. 451. ° 015 " 5 975 2 • J 

Seiior Mendez rfc Vigo to Mr. Evarts. 

Legation of Spain at Washington, 

Washington, March 29, 1879. 
Che undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary 
lis Catholic Majesty, has the honor herewith to transmit to the hon- 
orable Secretary of State of the United States, indorsed to his order, a 

1 aft for the sum of $10,000, in payment of the indemnity granted by 
the Government of Spain to the owners of the American barks Ellen 

pah and Rising Sun, the promise made by this legation in its note 
"lie loth of February last to the honorable Secretary of State being 

by fulfilled. 

le undersigned avails himself, &e. 

FELIPE MENDEZ DE VIGO. 

[Inelosmv.] 

D tft for ten thousand dollars ($10,000). 



No. 152. 

Mr. Evarts to Senor Mendez de Vigo. 

Department of State. 

Washington, April 1, 1879. 
Sie : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 
i ultimo, together with a draft indorsed to my order for the sum of 
,000, in payment of the indemnity granted by the Government of 
into the owners of the barks Ellen Rizpah and Rising Sun. 
The admirable manner in which the just claim of the owners of these 
vessels has been met by His Majesty's government, may be regarded as 
another gratifying exponent of those felicitous relations which have so 
; existed between Spain and the United States, and which, it is 
i d, will hereafter be. if possible, even more close than heretofore. 
I avail myself,-&c. 

WM, M. EVARTS. 



SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 

No. 153. 

Mr. Stevens to Mr. Evarts. 

No. 35.] United States Legation, 

Stockholm, January 20, 1879. (Received Feb. 10.) 
; Saturday, January IS, at noon, the annual session of the Swedish 
Parliament was opened by the King with the usual impressive ceremonies. 
The Queen, who was absent on a like occasion last year, owing to tem- 
porary residence in Germany because of serious ill-health, was prrc 
with three of the princes, the crown prince being now absent on a visit 
of some months in Southern Europe. 



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